


Into the Light

by redeem147



Category: Dollhouse
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-25
Updated: 2011-08-25
Packaged: 2017-10-23 01:13:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/244614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redeem147/pseuds/redeem147
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Is it really a relationship when it's all in your mind?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into the Light

The short, dark-haired woman in the tight tank top ran through the park. She loved the early morning rays of the sun as they just started to peek through the clouds. The just-crisp air energized her. It was so early that she was the only one on the trail.

“Hello.” A tall, muscularly-built blond man stepped out from behind a tree. “I was wondering if you could help me find my cat.”

“Sorry,” she called, as she ran by him.

He soon caught up with her and snaked his arm around her neck, cutting off her scream. “I'm not.”

***

Echo and Paul were arguing again. “You're just going stir-crazy,” he said. “I understand.”

“Don't be so damned understanding!” she snapped. “You're always doing that. And just because we've been cooped up down here for almost a year doesn't mean that every time I get ticked off it's because I'm stir-crazy.” As he started to respond she poked him in the chest. “And don't you dare say hormones!”

“Fine!”

“Fine!” She concentrated. “Get lost.” And he was gone.

She opened her eyes. She'd been so grateful to Topher for leaving Paul's wedge. For giving them the opportunity to be together always. Always was starting to seem like a very long time.

Okay, so all couples had their rough points. Priya and Tony had their moments. But they were stuck down here with their son waiting for the day they could all leave the House without fear of being wiped. They could still go to separate rooms. It wasn't like Tony was stuck inside Priya's head.

But she loved Paul. She'd known that since he'd fallen prey to a bullet. He'd always been so patient, so understanding.

So damned understanding.

She shouldn't let it get to her. Maybe she really was stir crazy. Maybe there were too many people in her head, all wishing they had more to do.

Deep in the back of her consciousness, one of those personalities was watching her. Watching her and waiting.

****

“Hey, T.” Echo crouched down besides the boy. “Whatcha doing?”

“Drawing.” He stopped for a moment so she could see. “It's a picture of us all outside. See? Mom's working in her garden.”

“That's really good, T. I know you can't wait. But it will be soon, and we'll all go out and take good deep breaths of fresh air, instead of this recycled crap. And we'll feel the sun on our faces, just like in your picture.”

“I wish we could have gone out with everyone else. But I know Mom and Dad were scared. They were afraid they'd forget one another.”

Echo ruffled his hair. “They wanted to make sure they remembered you. Your folks are good people.” She rubbed her forehead with her fingers.

“You got another headache?” T asked.

“Yeah, bit of one starting. I think I'll go lie down.”

****

She could control the mob while she was awake, but she wasn't so capable in her sleep. Dreams turned into discussions. Confrontations. Lately they were all with Paul.

He was complaining again about being put into a box when it suited her. That he didn't really have a life, not like she did. That she always put her needs first.

“I wish to hell Topher hadn't put your wedge near the chair,” she shouted. “I would have had your memory.”

“And your guilt.”

“And my guilt. Which is probably what I was feeling. If I'd loved you I would have faced it before you were lying there in a pool of your own blood. Leave me alone!” She turned away from him and stomped off, colliding with the man who had been observing her argument.

“I'm sorry,” he said. “I should have known.”

“Alpha?”

***

“I'll be with you in a minute.” The young woman walked into the public restroom. The stores were closing and her friends were eager to leave the mall. She stepped into the cubicle and shut the door, but before she could lock it, it was flung open.

She didn't have time to scream.

****

“So let me get this straight.” Echo was wide awake now. She had put Ballard back in his box and stood facing Alpha, hands on her hips and fire in her eyes. “You snuck into my head with Paul. How is that even possible? Topher was too smart to let that happen.”

“Topher was never smarter than I am on his best day. And as you recall, the last time you saw him he was hardly at his best.”

“But why would he download you with Paul? It doesn't make sense.”

“You're under the misconception that giving you Paul was Topher's idea. It wasn't.”

“It was yours.” The headache that had haunted Echo in the outside world threatened to invade her inner space.

“It was hard to watch you be in such pain. It was my last gift, before I left the House. To give you the man you loved. I had Topher access him from my brain.”

“With a little bonus, right? Why would you do that? You seemed so much better.”

“Evolved, you called me.”

“So, big act?”

“No!” His voice was forceful. “I just didn't trust Ballard. I know how the women all loved him. How he carried on with November while he was obsessed with Caroline. All the others... Oh yes, you have no idea what memories he brought to me. There had been a lot of women, and it usually didn't end well.”

“So you left his wedge knowing that I'd take him in, because I was in pain. I could have dealt with his death. Eventually.”

“Maybe,” Alpha said. “But with all the stress of who you are, maybe not. So I came along with him as a backup plan, in case it didn't work out. I want to protect you.”

“Christ, Alpha, I'm a big girl. I don't need a babysitter.”

“Babysitter.” Alpha held her by the shoulders, looking directly into her eyes. “Echo, I love you.”

****

Priya sat sewing the rip in Tony's jeans. “Don't you have a few therapists tucked in your head? Why are you asking me?”

“Because I want an objective opinion. And you have experience with the fractured relationship with your undying love thing.”

She paused, needle in mid-stitch. “And you don't.”

“Really don't think so. I mean, I thought at first it was just a rough patch, but I just don't have that feeling for Paul anymore.”

“I can't believe all this time he was stuck in your head and you didn't say anything. And now Alpha is there too? And he wants a relationship with you? That's a little....”

“Wacked out? Oh, yeah.”

“But you can control them. Ignore them.”

“I could.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “These headaches. It's getting harder. Paul keeps popping up, not in my dreams, but when I'm asleep. When I can't concentrate. But Alpha's been a gentleman, so far, anyway. Except for the sneaking into my brain in the first place. He only shows up when he knows I want to talk to him.”

“And you want to? He could be evil, you know. Playing you.”

She put her head down on the table. “I don't think so. He really had changed. The Alpha in my head is the new improved version. And he's really easy to talk to. He gets me. His brain is as screwed up as mine, thanks to Rossum.”

“Echo, are you developing, well, feelings for Alpha?”

Echo lifted her head and propped it on her hand, elbow on the table, and stared at Priya. “Oh, God. It shows?”

****

They sat in the shade of a large apple tree, branches heavy with fruit. Echo lay back, propped up on one elbow, while Alpha sat leaning against the trunk. “This is nice,” she said. “Much nicer than the big black empty space that usually passes for my mind. Wait a minute. That didn't come out right.”

He laughed. “I have a landscaper in here. Thought you'd like it.” His smile faded. “Tomorrow's the big day, isn't it?”

“Yeah. It's been over a year, and it's time we went outside.”

“How do you feel about that?”

“We can't hide in here forever.” She plucked a blade of grass and shredded between her fingers. “What's the worst that can happen to me? I'm Caroline again. It's Priya and Tony who should worry – come tomorrow they might not remember their own son.”

“I'd be gone.”

“I know.” She looked up at him. “I don't think that will happen. Topher said a year. I think the most that will happen is a bad sunburn. I've gotten pretty pasty.”

“You look beautiful.”

“Sure. A year in a bunker with no makeup or blow dryer and I'm gorgeous.” She took his hand. “I don't want you to go. So it won't happen. But if it does,” She pushed herself off the ground and embraced him. “I think we'd better make the most of today.”

****

The four took tentative steps into the light. If the pulse hadn't worked, the post-apocalyptic nightmare they'd left would be a year worse, and Topher's sacrifice would have been in vain. If it had, and all the actives were themselves again, this could be their last seconds as the people the Dollhouse had made them.

Their exit was anti-climactic. The city looked much as it used to before Rossum's medling. Mankind had picked itself up, dusted itself off, and rebuilt the world.

Tony and Priya walked hand in hand with their son.

And Alpha was with Echo. “Hey, what do you know,” he said, “It worked.”

****

As time went on, the four integrated back into society. Priya went back to her art, and Tony helped her start a gallery. Their son, for so long the only child, made friends at school after an awkward start. Echo took up odd jobs here and there, all the while researching the remnants of Rossum, trying to ensure they could never come so close to destroying society again.

She found that the longer she dealt with the various personalities in her head, the easier it was to control them. She and Alpha were happy.

One day, after a long shift at a factory, she was walking back to her apartment. A man stepped out from the shadows and grabbed her arm.

“Look at you,” he said. “Just my type.”

Normally she could have taken him down without thinking. Normally he would have been prostrate on the pavement by now.

But this was not a normal situation. “Alpha,” she gasped.

“Not me,” said the desperate voice in her head. “Karl William Kraft.”

Alpha's original host held a knife to Echo's throat.

“You can stop him,” Echo shouted. “Take him out. Now!”

“But I can't. We can use him. Take him back to the Dollhouse and download you. Really be together.”

“Not if you're dead.” Alpha took over Echo's body. She twisted out of Kraft's grasp and grabbed the knife, plunging it into the killer's heart.

Echo stared in shock at the body of the man she loved, lying in a pool of spreading blood.

“There's already enough of him in me,” Alpha said. “I don't want to be in him.”

****

Echo lay on her bed in the dark apartment, trying to sleep. She called up Alpha.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I'm good.”

“Just checking. Not every day your lover kills his own body.”

In her mind, she nestled into his arms, and they felt as real as any arms could feel. “Since when is anything about us every day?”


End file.
